Electric vehicles are understood to be vehicles operated by electrical energy. Electric vehicles include electric automobiles, in particular, which in recent years have increasingly gained attention because of their possible reduction of traffic-originating CO2 emissions and a desired reduction of dependence on petroleum as the basis of gasoline, diesel fuel, etc.
Instead of the internal combustion engine used in conventional vehicles, an electric motor, whose electrical energy is supplied by, for example, accumulators carried in the electric vehicle, is used in electric vehicles.
Wheel-hub electric motors can be used, as the electric motor, for driving an electric automobile. In that case, the wheel-hub electric motor is built directly into a wheel of the electric automobile and, at the same time, supports the wheel hub so that part of the wheel-hub electric motor rotates together with the wheel as an external rotor.
However, wheel-hub electric motors have the disadvantage that the chassis of the electric automobile reacts less comfortably, since the use of wheel-hub motors increases the unsprung masses of the electric vehicle. Moreover, wheel-hub motors are directly exposed to environmental influences, impact loads and the possibly high temperatures of the brakes, which reduce their useful life and their reliability.